March 20, 2003

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD'S Mike

Remember the scene from Apocalypse Now? Colonel Kilgore, the mad militarist, "loved the smell of napalm in the mornings", swooping down in his helicopter to blow away Vietnamese civilians, as specially mounted speakers on his chopper blared Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries.

Ominous coincidence, then, that as the Herald was waiting on hold for the Prime Minister's office yesterday, the recorded music was Ride of the Valkyries.

There was John Howard, on his feet, arguing that Australia, for the first time in its history, should be involved in a pre-emptive strike against another nation.